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T-bone
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It's a
fact of the music industry that many artists who are considered
pioneers those who have broken down barriers and paved a path
for others to follow often do not endure long enough past
their groundbreaking efforts to receive their due respect.
But as BoneYard/FlickerRecords recording artist T-Bone says
on the opening track of The Last Street Preacha, "Ten
years and we ain't quittin'…" "I definitely
consider myself a pioneer," says T-Bone. "I started
out with JC Crew in 1991, when there were only a few other
hip-hop artists, such as Dynamic Twins and SFC. But I was
the first gospel artist to do a true West Coast style rap
record. Prior to that, there was no 'gangsta' sound in Christian
music."
T-Bone sat under
the teaching and daily mentoring of his pastor and also undertook
several mission trips, spending one full year off the road.
"My heart is now more than ever for ministry," T-Bone
affirms. "When people come to my concerts, they sometimes
get freaked out because we'll do hip-hop then we'll stop and
do praise and worship in the middle of the concert. Then I
might start preaching and do an alter call. When I preach,
I don't beat around the bush, I tell you straight up exactly
how it is. I'm a very blunt person. Kids these days aren’t
going to listen if you don't come right out and be straight
up with them. I want kids to truly experience a touch from
God." Even though he grew up the son of evangelists,
for T-Bone "tha life of a hoodlum" isn’t simply
a clever bit of imagined history around which to devise a
character—before a soul-altering encounter with Christ,
it was his life. "A large part of my early life was spent
on the streets of San Francisco," T-Bone recalls. "I
would go to one of my parent's church services then turn around
and hit the streets with my homies, jumping people and getting
into all sorts of wild stuff." "What turned my life
around," T-Bone continues, "was when one of my friends
was gunned down in a local park. To the end he was loyal to
his crew, calling for them to wear their colors at his funeral.
I felt so ashamed and convicted, because growing up in church,
I knew what true friendship and love and belonging to something
greater than yourself was all about. Not long after that,
a guest preacher at my dad's church was delivering a sermon
that was like a book of my life. I responded to his altar
call and that's when I tell everyone I became a 'redeemed
hoodlum.' Ever since that day I've devoted my life to kids
that are trying to escape from those kinds of circumstances."
You can feel the rhythm and rhyme of the streets in T-Bone's
new disc, The Last Street Preacha. A lot of people—especially
Christians—don't have any idea what's going on in the
streets. So I wanted to let people know that this is where
I come from, this is what kids are going through and this
is what people are facing on a day to day basis. There's a
song called 'My Dream," which is about the life of a
drug lord—what I thought I once wanted to be. We come
reggae style with a song called "Conversion" and
songs like "Nuttin' 2 Somethin'" and "Friends"
are for my true soldiers, those who have stuck by me all along.
I've even got some party songs on the album, which is something
I've never done before. 'Getcha Hands Up" is a great
club groove, 'Turn It Up' is a bouncing Jeep song and 'Ride
Wit Me' talks about the high that comes from the Holy Spirit,
as opposed to drugs or alcohol." T-Bone, whose father
and mother hail from Central America, pays tribute to his
Latin heritage with several bilingual raps. He also honors
his dad with a song called "Father Figure." "I
was blessed because I had a father who really raised me—he
took time out to spend with me and be a true father. A lot
of rappers put tributes to their mothers on their records
but you don't hear as many tributes to dads because a lot
of the time they came home and their pops were drunk or they
weren't there at all. So I wanted to honor my dad." During
his hiatus from recording and touring, T-Bone kept a high
profile in the Christian media as host of the popular Trinity
Broadcasting Network program, Real Videos. "
One of the things
T-Bone Ministries has developed through my experience on Real
Videos and through my concerts is a world wide prayer and
intercessory team where pastors across the country send in
prayers. Then at concerts we have a place where people can
tell us their prayer needs and what we do is send these needs
out to all the leaders on a weekly basis so they we can saturate
all these requests with prayer. And we've started to plan
missions trips that last anywhere from a few days to as long
as a year. We've actually helped train four people that will
interact with a network of churches in Peru to remain there
and disciple local believers." While honored to take
his place among the pioneers of Gospel hip-hop, T-Bone says
it's often been a struggle to gain acceptance in the Christian
music industry. This record can compete with anything secular.
I want kids to say, 'Man this is tighter than Jay-Z's new
record.' I want to give kids something because you can't fool
these kids—they know what's authentic and they want something
that's real. I want to get kids off of that other junk and
just listening to the Word. And I want to be an example to
other artists. I think too much of the time, we as artists
get too caught up in the music, too caught up in entertainment
and forget about ministry. It's called Christian rock, Christian
rap, Christian music. The word Christian in front of it means
we represent Christ and that's what we need to do."
 _.:T-bone
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